Bone broth is not a stock cube. It is roasted bones, water, time, and a bit of acid to pull the goodness out. 1kg Beef Bones is a kilo of beef bones, which is a big pot of liquor and a freezer of portions. Find them in beef bones next to the other slow cooks in slow cooker meat.
Roast, then simmer
Spread the bones on a tray, 200°C for 30 to 40 minutes until they smell roasted, not just warm. Into a pot with cold water to cover, a splash of vinegar, onion, carrot, celery if you have them, a bay leaf. Simmer, not boil, 8 to 12 hours, skimming the foam at the start. A rolling boil makes cloudy, greasy broth. Strain, cool, lift the fat if you want a cleaner liquor. You should have a jelly in the fridge once it is cold; that is the point. If it is still thin water, you boiled too hard or did not give it long enough.
Slow cooker and what to cook in it
Slow cooker on low 12 hours after the roast is the overnight method. Use the broth to cook Extra Lean Diced Beef 400g or Beef Chuck 1.5kg so the stew is beef on beef, not beef on a cube. Shop stewing beef when the same order is a pot roast week, and beef if you are adding a frying steak for a different night. The broth freezes in old yoghurt pots; label the date.
Drinking it, and mistakes
A mug of broth with salt and pepper is a meal for some people and a starter for others. It is not a week-night 20-minute recipe. Do not skip the roast; pale boiled bones taste of boiled bones. Do not add a kilo of salt at the start; reduce and then season. A 1kg pack is one pot, not a garnish. If you have no 12-hour window, this is the wrong page — cook mince. If you have a Sunday and a slow cooker, this is one of the cheaper useful things you can make from a butcher’s bone pack, and the leftover fat is dripping for potatoes.
A 1kg pack of bones is one stockpot, not a garnish for a stew you already made with a cube. If you have never made broth, this is the pack to learn on: roast, cover, wait, strain. The first pot teaches you the smell of roasted bones versus boiled bones. After that you will not skip the roast step again.
Roast, long simmer, strain, chill, lift the fat. That is beef bone broth from a 1kg pack, and it is a cooking ingredient as much as it is a mug.